Nothing illustrates more aptly the emptiness of whatever method and merit there is to Pakistan’s current thinking than the continued selection of Kamran Akmal as a first-choice wicketkeeper

Osman Samiuddin in Lahore24-Jan-2009

	So complacent to Kamran Akmal’s failings have we become that the issue is no longer a debating point. © AFP

Nothing illustrates more aptly the emptiness of whatever method and merit there is to Pakistan’s current thinking than the continued selection of Kamran Akmal as a first-choice wicketkeeper.For about three years now, without exaggeration, Akmal has missed nearly a chance per match – an ODI – on average, sometimes more. This series has not bucked any trends. He missed a stumping today and dropped a catch in Karachi’s second ODI. His glovework to spinners in particular is, to be blunt, appalling, as if the ball and gloves both carry negative charges. Clean takes are seen as often as dry eyes in an Obama speech.Shahid Afridi in ODIs has now joined Danish Kaneria in Tests as a repeat victim of Akmal’s ineptitude; catches, stumpings, byes given away like every day is . Geoffrey Boycott’s great grandmother was an even bet to complete today’s stumping off Shoaib Malik (Stevie Wonder, according to bookies, was the odds-on favourite).So complacent to his failings have we become that the issue is no longer a debating point. Sarfraz Ahmed was tried half-heartedly last year. He did little wrong but was dropped as soon as a new selection committee came in and nobody peeped. Akmal returned, as if to the manor born, amid cautious assessment that he had improved. It was tosh, swiftly evidenced in three missed chances against West Indies in Abu Dhabi.If the issue is brought up, with selectors, team-mates, the captain even, it is said his batting makes up for it, as it did admittedly in Abu Dhabi. It is the curse Adam Gilchrist has left the game that poor wicketkeepers around the world are excused if only they know which side of the bat to hold. Akmal can bat, but that is not the same thing as making up for his follies. And anyway a player’s value to a side is not a balance book that you even out at the end.By scoring a fifty, you do not automatically make up for two catches missed earlier. A dropped chance is not just calculated in the runs made thereafter. The very mood, circumstances, and momentum of a game changes; if a wicketkeeper is the touchstone from whom fielders take their cue, then at least one reason why Pakistan are so inconsistent in the field is clear. At the risk of stating the obvious – and it obviously needs stating – a player’s value is to be judged only by what he , not a total sum of his failings from his positives.But if his batting is to be used as a persistent defence, if we are to go down that road, then there isn’t much there either. In his last 49 matches, he averages 21 with a single hundred against Bangladesh and two fifties. Charitably, there are perhaps four match-changing ODI knocks in three years. So no, let’s not go down that road.Akmal had something when he first cemented his place in the side. In Australia, India, the West Indies and at home against England over 2004 and 2005, he was a good wicketkeeper as well as batsman. To spin, he was safe, often spectacular. But he hasn’t had it for a long, long time. This may have been a poor patch sometime ago, but it is now turning into a horrid half-life. In this form, he might not catch a cold in an epidemic.Yet as sure as day follows night, there will be no calls for replacing or resting Akmal for a while. For Shoaib Akhtar there will be screams, for Afridi there are perennial daggers. But Akmal will go on, Pakistan’s Mr Teflon, on whom no criticism (or catch) sticks. It is said that he is particularly close to Malik. This much is true that Malik has repeatedly insisted Akmal be retained through this period. He even called him, a little while back, the second-best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world, after Gilchrist, which should invite defamation lawsuits from Kumar Sangakkara and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to say nothing of Brendon McCullum.Predictably, Malik defended his performance again today. “This is the same Akmal who has won Pakistan matches from difficult situations. Catches are dropped by all wicketkeepers and one or two in recent matches doesn’t make a difference. We have to keep the future in mind and not put pressure on him,” he said.Sadly the thinking is emblematic not just of a cricket culture where merit is often wholly forsaken and mediocrity repeatedly rewarded for the sake of a personal connection, but of an entire nation.

Already 1-0 down in the series, and with their No. 1 ranking under severe threat, Australia couldn’t have asked for a better venue to mount a fightback

S Rajesh24-Dec-2008Already 1-0 down in the series, and with their No. 1 ranking under severe threat, Australia couldn’t have asked for a better venue to mount a fightback. A Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Cricket has been synonymous with absolute Australian dominance in recent times: since the 1999-2000 season, they have a perfect 9-0 win-loss record here. Not only have they won each time, they have also done so with plenty to spare – out of those nine wins, one was by an innings, four by a margin of more than 175 runs, and three by nine wickets. South Africa were at the receiving end on two of those occasions, losing by nine wickets in 2001, and by 184 runs in 2005.

Australia and South Africa at the MCG

	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn
Australia – overall	100	57	28	15
South Africa – overall	11	2	7	2
Autralia – since 1990	19	15	2	2
South Africa – since readmission	4	0	2	2

For a beleaguered and harried team, the numbers at this ground will please Ricky Ponting, the under-pressure captain . In the last nine Tests at the MCG, Australia average almost twice as many runs per wicket as the opposition, and score at a much faster rate too. They also tend to take the early initiative with both bat and ball – their average partnerships for the first two wickets here are 50 and 66.21, while the opposition’s is 30.55 and 29.27. Once they’ve take the early initiative, they’ve refused to let go. (Click here for Australia’s average runs per partnership, and here for the opposition’s.)

Australia’s dominance at the MCG since 1999-2000

	Runs per wicket	Runs per over
Australia batting	45.28	3.63
Australia bowling	23.37	2.77

Australia come into this match, though, with plenty of problems. Their biggest worries have revolved around the form of their most experienced players, and there again, Melbourne has been kind to most of them in the past. Matthew Hayden has had a horror run in the last couple of months, scoring 282 runs in his last 13 innings, but the MCG has been his most prolific venue: in nine Tests he has scored 1072 runs at an outstanding average of 76.57. In his five most recent Tests here, his record is even more scary – his scores read 136, 53*, 9, 56*, 65, 137, 153, 124, and 47, giving him an aggregate of 780 and an average of 111.42. Ricky Ponting, another batsman who has had a patchy year so far, averages more than 61 here, though his last three innings have only fetched him 14 runs.

Australian batsmen in Melbourne

Batsman	Tests	Runs	Average	100s/ 50s
Matthew Hayden	9	1072	76.57	6/ 3
Andrew Symonds	3	307	61.40	1/ 1
Ricky Ponting	11	917	61.13	3/ 3
Michael Hussey	3	197	39.40	1/ 0
Michael Clarke	3	118	29.50	0/ 1
Simon Katich	1	29	29.00	0/ 0

Among the bowlers, Brett Lee has been the biggest concern – he has taken 21 wickets at 42.23 in his last seven Tests, including returns of 1 for 132 in Perth – but at the MCG he has racked up 34 wickets in just seven Tests at an average of 25. The accuracy of Stuart Clark will be missed again: in two Tests here, Clark averages 10.50, at an economy rate of 1.66; in four innings, he has never conceded more than 1.87 runs per over.South Africa have far fewer worries going into the match, and Jacques Kallis’ two half-centuries in Perth means the one batsman who has struggled for runs this year has found some as well. Kallis needs just 79 more to become the first South African to score 10,000 Test runs, and if his past record at this ground is any indication, he should get it over the next five days: Kallis averages averages 47.50 at the MCG, which is where he scored a century in his first Test in Australia. The next time he played here, he almost got another century, being run-out for 99. He didn’t get many in 2005, but now would be a perfect time to make amends for that.Australia’s selection quandary includes the question-mark over their spinner, and while Nathan Hauritz has come in for the profligate Jason Krejza, recent record here suggests Hauritz won’t have much success. In the last nine Tests, fast bowlers have taken 196 wickets at an average of just over 30, nine runs fewer than the spinners’ average. Surprisingly, spinners have taken more five-fors, with fast bowlers sharing the wickets around most of the time. All the five-wicket hauls by spin bowlers have been by wristspinners – two by Anil Kumble, and one each by Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Danish Kaneria.

Pace and spin at the MCG in the last nine Tests

	Wickets	Average	Strike rate	5WI/ 10WM
Pace	196	30.78	61.1	4/ 0
Spin	73	39.63	70.8	5/ 0

The 2009 first-class competition will feature “return” matches, will run for 14 successive weekends and will allow teams 12 matches in the season, the most in regional history

Haydn Gill04-Jan-2009
Will more first-class games provide the much-needed boost to West Indies cricket? © The Nation
For the vast majority of the past 40 years, regional cricket has been blessed with a sponsor for the annual first-class competition. Yet, with the exception of two seasons, it was limited to an unsatisfactory handful of matches. Now that there is no sponsor, we have the reverse.The 2009 first-class competition, which bowls off on Friday, will feature “return” matches, will run for 14 successive weekends and will allow teams 12 matches in the season, the most in regional history.It is a welcome change. Every cricket expert – and there are thousands of them in the Caribbean – has long lamented that the short season is a major reason for the West Indies’ unacceptable performances at the international level.Yet those in charge hardly did anything to change it, with the expectation of the 1997 and 2005 seasons. For much of the past 15 years the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has been soundly criticised for its inefficiencies – with some justification in many cases.Today, however, we can salute the regional body for an initiative that is long overdue. The WICB could have simply used the excuse that with no sponsor on board, it could not afford at this time to undertake expenditure for a tournament that is likely to cost them more than US$2 million. Instead, the WICB will use its “own cricket development funds” to finance the tournament. Would it be logical to assume that some of the US$50 million profit from World Cup 2007 is being put to good use?Having also recently lost out on sponsorship of its limited-overs tournament and bearing in mind the current global economic crisis, the WICB will face a long-term challenge in ensuring its competitions are adequately funded. With the first-class season requiring 14 weekends to complete, the WICB has taken the unprecedented step of running the regional season alongside the international engagements, largely due to time constraints.The debate, however, still remains on the pros and cons of this move. The major benefit is that players outside the West Indies team will be kept active with a serious level of competition and would not be rusty if they were required for higher duties.The downside of it is that the regional competition could be put in the background. When Kensington Oval will be hosting the third Test between West Indies and England from February 26 to March 2, Barbados will be playing Trinidad and Tobago at Guaracara Park.It is a distinct possibility the latter match will get little or no radio coverage and less than usual newspaper column inches. Could it be one of the reasons why a sponsor would not be attracted to the regional competition? After all, any sponsor wants maximum mileage from its investment and the current schedule would not have been beneficial to sponsors.Some observers often argue that the English county season doesn’t stop when England are playing Test matches at home, but it can be countered by saying that we in the Caribbean have a different culture. Traditionally, when international cricket is on in the West Indies, everything else takes a back seat.To have first-class cricket on at the same time is virtually reducing those matches to club games, although it must be pointed out that authorities have tried to diminish the effect by not scheduling regional matches in territories that will be hosting international matches at the time.While the WICB must be praised for going ahead with the extended season, it deserves some criticism for the late availability of fixtures. The itinerary for the 2009 competition was released on Wednesday, a mere ten days before the start of the season. For the recent regional limited-overs competition in Guyana, which started on November 13, the fixtures were made public on November 1.This has now become the norm and it often presents challenges to local associations in planning their domestic engagements. It also puts fans in the dark. In stark contrast, the England and Wales Cricket Board already has on its website itineraries for all of its 2009 competitions between April 9 and September 27.

Fearless, colourful, and exciting, T&T are a well-oiled unit harnessed by a strong structure and visionary leadership

Nagraj Gollapudi22-Oct-2009Colin Borde sits with his legs across the arms of the sofa chair in his room. He is lounging with his back to the early afternoon sunlight, which enters through the tinted windows. A couple of hotel stewards are leaving the room, having put fresh linen on the bed, and Borde asks them to leave the door open.”My door is open all the time so that the players can walk in and communicate with me, use my computer and never feel deprived of anything,” he says. It hasn’t been half an hour since Borde, the Trinidad & Tobago team manager, woke up after celebrations following his side’s resounding victory over the Eagles to ensure passage into the semi-finals of the Champions League Twenty20.Adrian Barath, Match of the Match in his debut Twenty20 game the previous evening, walks in to ask Borde about plans for the afternoon. Borde tells T&T’s youngest player to get ready in 30 minutes as they make plans to go shopping. Borde believes it is this open-door policy, prevalent through the T&T management and structure, that has paved the way for the team’s success in recent years. They are the only side to have reached the semi-finals undefeated.T&T have long been a powerhouse of West Indies domestic cricket. In the last three years they have lifted two regional titles: the four-day competition in 2007 and the Stanford 20/20 in 2008. They play their game with the openness, flair and fearlessness normally associated with Caribbean teams.Those qualities were vibrant in their tournament opener, against Somerset, where Dave Mohammed, who so famously used his shoe-phone celebration routine during the Stanford 20/20, led the pumped-up celebrations. Merely running around after taking a wicket just wouldn’t do for him. It had to be something special, crazier. In the first game, when he took the wicket of Peter Trego, he did a somersault and thumped his thighs, then hit his chest like Tarzan as he lay on the ground, waiting to be mobbed by his team-mates.Later in the week Dwayne Bravo kept his nerve while bowling an exemplary death over, against Deccan Chargers, which was followed by Kieron Pollard’s blitz that flattened a formidable New South Wales. In their last game, the diminutive 19-year-old Barath, wearing braces, scored a dominant half-century against the Eagles.T&T’s run has earned them admirers outside the Caribbean. Former Australia batsman Justin Langer, Somerset’s captain, is a keen observer of people and he singled out Daren Ganga’s influence as a catalyst in T&T’s performance. “I love the T&T spirit and I really enjoy the way Daren Ganga speaks in the press conference, where he talks about unity within the squad,” Langer said. “The most successful cricket teams have unity and T&T have that unity.” Daryl Harper, the Australian umpire, notes how in game after game the team throws up surprises.To the outside world, more striking than T&T’s on-field success has been their mature outlook, the way players have displayed a sense of purpose, and their clarity of thought – traits largely absent in West Indies sides of the last decade or so. Brian Lara could be the greatest batsman born in Trinidad but his friend and former West Indian team-mate Ganga may well be the island’s best leader this generation.Neither Ganga nor Borde is surprised by T&T’s consistency in the tournament. They credit the structure put in place by the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) in consultation with the players. “Our culture of cricket in Trinidad is a bit different to that of other territorial teams, and by extension the West Indies teams, because I’ve been in both set-ups,” Ganga says.Before he was appointed captain, Ganga was not happy with a lot of T&T players who were also in the West Indies side, because when they came back to the first-class set-up they took things for granted. “They never really placed the amount of value that should have been placed on playing for your country. That is one of the areas I recognised when I got into the captaincy role.”

“You’ve got to find a happy medium if you want young people to learn. You’ve got to try and speak their language. It is not about them understanding you. You’ve got to try to understand them.”T&T manager Colin Borde

That culture needed to change. And it had to happen at the T&T executive level as well as with the selectors and others who made important decisions with regard to the country’s cricket. “It was a consensus on the part of everyone for us to approach our cricket in a certain way in terms of zero tolerance in [matters of] discipline, the respect of people and cricket being the most important thing, and that all sacrifices should be made towards ensuring the quality of our cricket is improved,” says Ganga.Therein lies the main difference between the successful and strong TTCB and the rocky and insular West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). In the last few years the TTCB has sat down and had a look at the reasons behind a fractious WICB, in particular the distrust between players and administration. “You’ve got to find a happy medium if you want young people to learn. You’ve got to try and speak their language,” says Borde. “It is not about them understanding you. You’ve got to try and understand them.”Borde is 45 and looks every bit the real-estate agent that he is back home in Trinidad. But it isn’t difficult to see why the entire squad respects him. He played for Queen’s Park Cricket Club as a wicketkeeper-batsman and is now part of its management. The club has been a conveyor belt for West Indian teams – it has produced, among others, Brian Lara, Brian Davies, Charlie Davies, Mervyn Dillon, the Bravo brothers, Dwayne and Darren, and Kieron Pollard.Borde and Ganga agree with the popular opinion that cricket is the unifying force that can bring all the Caribbean islands together. “The only real thing that combines us closely is cricket, and apart from the division between each island, which is water, there is a division even greater than that, between administrators and players,” Borde says.”This team is dealt with like family. The atmosphere is conducive to learning, so the players have the opportunity to express themselves. They are taught self-governance. I have always impressed upon them that it is really important as a young person to understand that if you happen to play cricket and you happen to get paid to get as a professional cricketer, it is something that is special for many reasons.”Ganga believes that there can’t be enough emphasis on the importance of delivering cutting-edge performances. The management has also stressed physical and mental fitness, as well as gelling as a unit. T&T have a base in central Trinidad that features an indoor facility with dedicated coaches and support staff. Ganga singles out the names of Ronald Rogers (physio), Clinton Jeremiah (assistant trainer) and Gerald Garcia, a former member of the support staff, as having dedicated their time toward pushing players to their limits.Discipline has traditionally not been regarded as a Caribbean trait, but Ganga has placed a premium on it from the start of his tenure as captain. “I’m not talking about just cricketing issues, I’m talking about respect for people off the field, the way you carry yourself, your mannerisms – all these things reflect on your game as well. If you are not punctual, something is not clear in your mind.”Ganga’s exacting nature is reflected in his habit of picking on players who don’t tuck their shirts in. “When you start making sure these things are in order, then you realise that you have guys who are willing to sacrifice their comfort level for common good, and that is your team,” he says. That is how you develop camaraderie and team spirit.” Borde presents another example: of a player who walked in 35 seconds late for a meeting and was chastised by the entire team as the manager let him have it.It is also about splitting leadership. Apart from Ganga, who remains at the top of the leadership tree, the team management decided to appoint a batting director (Pollard), bowling director (Ravi Rampaul), fielding director (Denesh Ramdin), spin bowling directors (Sherwin Ganga and Samuel Badree) and two auxiliary directors (Ryan Emrit and Navin Stewart) who will look after any concerns off the field, including the size of the beds.Ganga believes in the advantage of deputising. “The directors are privy to most things that are done collectively as a team so that there is a certain amount of ownership and filtering down of information.”It is clear Ganga is the guiding light of this team. What is also clear is that the youngsters are receptive to his leadership. One example was during the vital game against Deccan in the group stage, where T&T were chasing a win for two vital points to be carried into the league stage. Deccan began the 18th over needing 20 to win. Ganga gave the ball to Rampaul, usually accustomed to bowling the final or penultimate overs.Death-over specialist: Ravi Rampaul•AFP”I said to him, ‘You are the guy to do the job for us. You just need to bowl one brilliant over.'” That was exactly what Rampaul did, allowing seven runs and taking a wicket, to set things up for Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Bravo to finish the game off. It is a move that gives Ganga much satisfaction.A similar scenario played out with William Perkins, who top-scored with 38 in the same game. Ganga walked up to the opener and said, “William, something about today tells me that you are going to be the guy that’s going to make us win.” As if on cue, Perkins ignited T&T’s innings. Ganga believes in creating an environment where every player believes in his ability.There is a sense of purpose in the team. T&T have gone about doing their work like a well-oiled machine. The idea is to emulate the best teams in the world.Ganga has been instrumental in inviting the likes of Lara, footballer Dwight Yorke, and sprinter Ato Boldon – all homegrown global stars – to address his team. Ganga also names TTCB president Deryck Murray and Joey Carew, the former West Indies chief selector, as major support systems for the team on the administrative front. He says that Lara has been in constant communication with him in India to discuss tactics and strategies for individual matches.Continuity is another important factor that Ganga says T&T have been able to handle better, unlike with the WICB, which has been known for its chopping and changing. Under the T&T umbrella, if a player loses form, he is rehabilitated with proper attention and care. Barath, a year-and-half after playing in the Under-19 domestic tournament, ran into a lean phase, but he was picked for the U-23 team and then the 50-over regional competition, which gave him a platform to step up to the first-class level and score three hundreds.Irrespective of what happens in Thursday’s semi-final in Hyderabad, Ganga believes T&T’s success could prove to be a harbinger of a new and refreshed outlook for West Indian cricket. “It has already brought a lot more positives,” he says. “Now a lot more administrators are going to focus on the quality of cricket.”

Stats preview of the fifth and final Test between England and Australia at The Oval

Siddhartha Talya19-Aug-2009The venue for the first Test to be staged in England, in 1880, between the same two teams, will host the Ashes decider. There have been six previous occasions of these two teams coming in to a final Test at The Oval with the series tied, but this is the first such instance since 1953. On each of these occasions there’s been a decisive result, with England winning four of them and losing two.

Final-Test Ashes deciders at The Oval

YearWinnerSeries Result1896England2-11912England1-01926England1-01930Australia2-11934Australia2-11953England1-0England’s heavy defeat at Headingley means Australia only need a draw to retain the Ashes, and with almost 40% of Tests played at The Oval being drawn, England face a stiff task on what is likely to be a good batting pitch. Another discouraging fact for the hosts is that Surrey’s four home Division Two County Championship games this year at The Oval were all drawn.The teams, though, have contrasting records at the venue. England have largely been dominant; Australia have won six and lost 15. But three of the four Ashes Tests here since 1990 have been dead rubbers while the fourth, in 2005, was a draw which helped England regain the urn after 16 years.

England and Australia at The Oval

TeamTestsWonLostDrawnWin-loss RatioEngland (overall)913718362.05Australia (overall)34615130.40England (since 1990)199541.80Australia (since 1990)41210.50The Australian seamers made the most of favourable conditions at Headingley but are likely to face a more serious challenge at The Oval. The pitches at the venue, generally, have been the best for batting among the Test venues in England and teams, since 2000, have averaged more per wicket here – barring Cardiff which has hosted just one Test – than anywhere else in the country. Unlike Headingley, where many of England’s batsmen have below-par records, The Oval’s been highly productive.The highest batting average here among England’s current squad, though, belongs to Steve Harmison, who averages 119. Andrew Strauss would want to better his average of 37.55 but both Alastair Cook and Andrew Flintoff, who plays his last Test, average more than 50. Paul Collingwood’s done considerably better at The Oval, at 39.33, than he has at Headingley, though Ian Bell’s average is a disappointing 30.75. Mark Ramprakash’s name had been doing the rounds for a possible No.3 spot; he’s enjoyed a prolific county season where he’s averaged 100.75 in nine Championship games so far, but in Tests his returns at The Oval have been more modest – an average of 33 in seven matches. (Click here for England’s individual records at The Oval.)The relative ease with which batsmen have flourished at this ground is mirrored by the partnership stats for England: each of the first six wickets have averaged over 40 since 2000, with the opening stand topping the list with 59.12. There have also been 12 century-stands for the first five wickets for England in the same duration.

England batsmen at The Oval

BatsmanTestsRunsAverage100s/50sSteve Harmison5119119.000/0Alastair Cook333355.500/3Andrew Flintoff426753.400/3Paul Collingwood423639.330/2Andrew Strauss533837.551/2Ian Bell524630.750/3Only four Australians in the current squad have played a Test at The Oval. Ricky Ponting has scored just one half-century in four innings at the ground, averaging 39.25, while his deputy, Michael Clarke, made 25 in his only attempt here. Simon Katich made just 1 in the 2005 Test and Brett Lee, in the two games he’s played here, has bagged only two wickets at 127.50. (Click here for Australia’s individual records at The Oval.)Harmison leads the bowling honours at the ground too – he is the highest wicket-taker, with 22 in five Tests at an average of 26. In terms of averages, he is trumped by Stuart Broad, who took five wickets in his only Test at the venue at 20.80. Flintoff bagged 5 for 78 against Australia in 2005 while James Anderson has two four-fors. The track at The Oval takes more spin than other English grounds but Monty Panesar’s figures have been disappointing: he’s taken seven wickets here at 51.57.

England bowlers at The Oval

BowlerTestsWicketsAverageStrike-rateBest figuresStuart Broad1520.8036.45-104Steve Harmison52226.0047.46-46Paul Collingwood4327.0054.02-24James Anderson41831.7749.74-52Andrew Flintoff41133.1863.85-78Monty Panesar3751.5796.72-4Ryan Sidebottom1193.00192.01-93Like Panesar, spinners, for the most part, have had a tough time at The Oval despite the venue’s reputation. At grounds that have hosted more than five Tests in England since 2000, spinners have conceded more runs on average here, and at Headingley, than anywhere else. Shane Warne has taken three five-fors and two ten-wicket hauls in two Tests here, and his wickets make for more than a third of those taken by spinners since 2000. While Headingley redresses the balance by aiding seamers considerably, The Oval’s been the harshest – again, excluding Cardiff – on fast bowlers since 2000.

Pace and Spin at The Oval since 2000

Bowling typeOversWicketsAverage5w/10wPace2083.118736.834/0Spin836.16144.194/2In the last nine Tests at The Oval, the side winning the toss has batted on seven occasions, winning four of those games and drawing three. Teams are most productive in the first innings, where they average 45.17 per wicket, explaining the toss trends. The pitch has displayed a tendency to remain true throughout the match, and sides chasing have generally taken advantage, averaging 42.85 in the fourth innings. (Click here for the second and third innings stats.)

Everyone may have gotten used to Sri Lankan cricket without Vaas, but the bowler’s desire to play international cricket’s still bright

Sriram Veera20-Mar-2010Kumar Sangakkara must have seen it a thousand times yet when it came towards him on Friday it was of little help. Chaminda Vaas’ fingers cut across the ball at release, the ball swerved across, gripped the pitch and broke back in. Sangakkara pushed out like a novice, the bat was stabbed outside the line and the ball cut back in to take a fatal inside edge. Vaas’ slow offcutter had done it again.He last played an ODI in August 2008 and a Twenty20 game almost a year before that. And that lack of form showed in the last two editions of the IPL, when he was carted around the park. It was almost painful to watch him bowl. The pace had dropped considerably, the slower ones seemed more stock ball than variation, the swing was dying and he was repeatedly hit through the line and out of the attack. To the observer he rarely gave the impression he could get through his full spell of ten overs in any game. And when he was eventually axed from the national team – ironically, under Sangakkara’s captaincy – there weren’t many protests. Everyone, it seemed, had moved on and got used to Sri Lankan cricket without Vaas.Except Vaas himself, for whom the desire to play international cricket still burns bright. “I have retired from Test cricket [but] I am still available for Sri Lanka in ODIs and T20s. The World Cup is a big motivation,” he said last week. But he made actions speak louder than words during this IPL, actions that prompted the return of that shy smile, that familiar celebration with forefinger raised to the skies as he gently jogs towards the keeper.He didn’t take long to make his move: Off the first ball of the inaugural game, he got Manoj Tiwary flicking tamely to midwicket. It didn’t presage what was to come; it looked as if the batsman had contrived to get out to a harmless delivery. Two balls later, though, he made you sit up and watch. The ball curved away ever so late from Sourav Ganguly, who was lured into edging his square drive to slips. He did it again in the next game against Chennai Super Kings, picking up three wickets – Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina and M Vijay – with the new ball.The dismissals were indicative of the batsmen’s mindset – they seemed to be caught in Vaas’ repertoire, expecting length deliveries at gentle pace lacking venom and with minimum swing. And Vaas was canny enough to exploit the situation. Vijay charged out to heave but was done in by the inward movement, Raina went chasing a delivery well outside off stump and Hayden perished, unable to adjust his intended paddle-scoop to the lack of pace.Barring Sangakkara and Ganguly, nearly all his other victims have fallen to overconfidence, the bowler preying on their ego, lulling them into a false sense of security, allowing them to think he was there to be taken apart. Vaas is used to being treated that way. In his fag end of his successful career, when pace deserted him, he had thrived on the subtle changes in pace and movement. For quite some time now, the wicketkeeper would be standing up to the stumps for Vaas, as happened on Friday when Sangakkara was batting.With some bowlers, it could appear a sign of a weakness; with Vaas, you felt it was just an acceptance of reality. He even made it appear an accomplice in his plan to cramp and suffocate the batsmen. The length deliveries would either shape in or curve away on a probing line and dot balls would pile up to create pressure. The batsman would try to break free and would be either done in by a slower one or caught at short cover or short midwicket. However, as he lost even more pace and hence the bite from his swing, the batsmen started to whack him through the line.Things have changed this IPL, though it appears that Vaas is yet to re-learn how to bowl in the end overs. In the first game, when he came back at the death, he was even swept away and was taken off the attack. You will see Gilchrist try to make full use of Vaas with the new ball. What should be interesting is to see how he bowls once the batsmen start playing him with a little bit more respect for the new ball. He has already punished their eagerness to go after him; if they hold back and choose the deliveries to hit, can Vaas still strike as he has done in the last three games? Or will he slip away yet again to anonymity?

The South Africans could hardly believe their luck when they found out they wouldn’t be facing the player who has twice denied them victory in this series

Andrew McGlashan in Johannesburg14-Jan-2010The South Africans could hardly believe their luck when they found out they wouldn’t be facing the player who has twice denied them victory in this series. Graham Onions’ omission in favour of Ryan Sidebottom caught plenty by surprise, including the home side who had been left cursing his match-saving defence but also respected his bowling.”He would have been a handful on this wicket, he gets very tight into the stumps and could have been very dangerous,” Dale Steyn said. “I’m not taking anything away from Ryan Sidebottom, he’s also a very good bowler, but obviously Onions has troubled a lot of our batsmen throughout the series and it’s surprising to see he wasn’t playing. It was a bit if a relief in a way.”Before this match Mickey Arthur joked that the South Africans would have to do extra video analysis work on Onions’ batting, after he survived final overs from Makhaya Ntini at Centurion and Morne Morkel at Cape Town, but if they did make extra notes they can now be filed away for another series.The first argument to explain Onions’ omission would be that he isn’t in the side for his batting. But even though his bowling figures for the series stand at an unflattering eight at 45.75 they don’t reflect how he has performed. He was the pick of the pace attack at Centurion and has let no-one down since then. The unplayable ball to remove Jacques Kallis in the first innings at Newlands showed what he was capable of producing.At the toss Andrew Strauss said the team needed some “fresh legs” for the final challenge at altitude, but that does beg the question how much use the six-day gap between Tests had been, and whether three of those days should have been spent at sea-level in Cape Town. Onions has bowled 115 overs in the series, a lighter workload than James Anderson who has sent down 138.5 and Stuart Broad (126).There is clearly an element of horses-for-courses with England expecting swing to play a major part in this game, but the way Morkel made the ball carry showed bounce will also be rewarded. Onions is clearly no Morkel when it comes to height or pace, but has shown the ability to get disconcerting lift from a good length.”He has done a fantastic job, but you can also understand the need for fresh legs – with the amount of overs the three seamers have bowled over the three Test matches,” Paul Collingwood said. “Ryan Sidebottom is a very accurate bowler, and we hope he’ll be perfect for this pitch.”There was enough evidence in South Africa’s short stint with the bat that Sidebottom could prove a handful. He beat Ashwell Prince with a cracking delivery that seamed and bounced, while he also caught Graeme Smith on the crease with some swing.However, there is the old adage of “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”, not to mention lingering concerns that Sidebottom is no longer the force he was during his golden period from 2007 to 2008. He has suffered a run of injuries, including a side strain early on this tour, and his last Test was against West Indies, in Barbados, when he clearly wasn’t fit. He remained part of the one-day and Twenty20 set-up during the 2009 home season, but lost his limited-overs place after the Champions Trophy.In fact, Sidebottom’s last outing in a competitive fixture was the second of the two two-day warm-ups, against a South Africa Invitational XI in East London, in early December where he claimed 5 for 42. Since then it has been a tour of gym work, net bowling and practice sessions. If the selectors have made the right call then all credit to them, but if it backfires serious questions will be asked. England will pray they aren’t nine-down with a handful of overs remaining in this match.

The stifling heat doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the local cricket lover and it won’t that of tourists either

Mike Coward17-Nov-2010Whether it was the extraordinary cricket, the spontaneity and warmth of the hospitality or simply the wondrous dosas, idlis and sambhars, my embrace of India intensified markedly when I reached Chennai ahead of the north-east monsoon in 1986.So much so that I have returned on many occasions and in 1989 lived south of the city, near the fishing village of Palavakkam, writing about the history and joys of Indo-Australian cricket. Kris Srikkanth would often toot and wave as he made his way to and from the city.As though to affirm my affection for and allegiance to the region, I am writing while wearing a watch designed to mark the 150th anniversary of the Madras Cricket Club in 1996, and gifted by dear friend and fellow scribe R Mohan.For many years now I have been firmly of the view that the thrilling rebirth of Australian cricket did not take place in England in 1989, as is generally thought, but in India in 1986 and 1987. There can be no doubt that at the direction of captain Allan Border and coach Bob Simpson, Australian cricket developed a new maturity, awareness and worldliness on these unforgettable visits. And the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, or Madras as the sprawling, welcoming city was then known, was the stage for two events that profoundly impacted on Australian cricket history.On September 22, 1986, the first Test of a three-match series produced just the second tie in 1052 Test matches since 1877, and Dean Jones was rightly feted for playing an innings for the ages. On October 9, 1987, Australia defeated reigning champions India by one run in their opening match of the 1987 World Cup, which so stirringly was played under a banner of “Cricket for Peace”. A month later at Eden Gardens, Australia defeated England to win the World Cup for the first time.These were heady, unforgettable moments for anyone associated with Australian cricket at the time.Chennai occupies a special place in the annals of Australian cricket and not simply because so many touring teams have been successful. (The first of only two defeats came in 1998, when Sachin Tendulkar ran amok.)Not all Australian legspinners have occupied a cultural backwater and professed a dependence on baked beans, and in 1979, Jim Higgs spotted an axiom painted on the wall of a fisherman’s foreshore tenement in Chennai. What’s more, he took a photograph of it for posterity: “To lose patience is to lose the battle”.The Chennai match was the first of six Tests in 1979-80 and while Kim Hughes’ tourists were defeated 2-0 by Sunil Gavaskar’s men, the dictum became a mantra for rest of the tour. And principally because of Border, who was vice-captain to Hughes, it has been well remembered and recalled. Subsequent teams, led by Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, also unselfconsciously invoked the maxim, and it is indisputable that Australia’s record on the Indian subcontinent improved in this time.One fancies that Higgs spotted the tenement while taking the more scenic route to the ground along the Dr Radhakrishnan and South Beach roads, past the expansive Marina beach, where lovers stroll and children play on miniature merry-go-rounds and and bark for attention.Of course, he could have reached the ground down the broad Mount Road (Anna Salai), which boasts one of my favourite Indian road signs: “Please observe lane discipline.” And while traffic is certainly more ordered these days, one would hardly say it is disciplined or quieter – especially after stumps, when the shops and bazaars are doing a roaring trade.It is true that the Chidambaram Stadium offers a particular challenge to the visitor. The ground, a cement cauldron in the inner suburb of Chepauk, was built alongside the Buckingham Canal, once a watercourse for traders but now an open sewer after urban Chennai overflowed. If the breezes from the Bay of Bengal are strong enough to stir the ancient African baobab trees along the eastern side of the ground, where cowpats dry for fuel, rank smells can waft throughout the stadium. Together with enervating high humidity, this can be suffocating and nauseating, as Dean Jones, among many others, will attest.But at least to the spectator this is a mere bagatelle when one considers the joy of watching cricket with one of the most thoughtful and knowledgeable crowds in all of India at such a renowned venue. And if fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the Madras Cricket Club, one can reflect on the day’s play over a beer or fresh-lime soda sweet (no ice) beneath gently oscillating fans. Not even the constant squawking of the carrion crows will disturb the reverie.Head to Marina beach after the day’s cricket•Getty ImagesCertainly this scribe sought such sanctuary in 1986 and 1987, when newspaper reports were hammered out on noisy typewriters in an open press enclosure. Then, at the command of “Copy”, the words were conveyed by runners to telex operators working in a wire cage in the bowels of the stadium, adjacent to the players’ dressing rooms.Often the copy, typed on new-fangled thermal paper, was stained with sweat that had poured from the brow, as unhelpful Australian deadlines were gallantly met in such oppressive heat. These days there is a swish new air-conditioned press box, but more often than not you will hear the older scribes talk about their commitment when the going was hardest all those summers ago.What joy it will be to return to Chidambaram Stadium and after a memorable day’s play hail an auto-rickshaw for a leisurely journey along the foreshore at Marina beach, perhaps stopping for a dosa or an ice-cream as dusk falls over a still Bay of Bengal.

How politics influences cricket in the subcontinent, and particularly in Sri Lanka

Osman Samiuddin23-Feb-2011The road from Colombo is cosy and potentially dangerous. It might not look so severe on a map, but driving along it feels like navigating a particularly aimless, thin , escorted along both sides by thick, beautiful jungle. Intermittently appear signs of life, brief stretches of thatched shops and houses, relief from overwhelming beauty.About five hours in arrives a junction, at the village of Suriyawewa. The left takes you into a new country. It is the road to Sri Lanka’s latest venue, the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Hambantota. The road is wide, that darkish sheen fresh roads have, with bright white lane markings. You could skateboard down this, or luge it. Ten kilometres later appears the stadium, an ode to the way the subcontinent works: if there is political will – and no doubt self-interest – great things happen with greater haste.In a very modern way, like a new Apple gadget, the stadium is beautiful. It stands alone, a little sad and out of place. As you drive through the gates, the back of the grandstand building looks like the front grille of a nifty vintage car. Around the ground, the earth’s trees battle the sky’s clouds for fluffy beauty. The playing field is deliberately large – apparently with other sports in mind – overlooked at one end by the towering grandstand and at the other by the media centre. On either side are the general stands, two blocks covered and with seating. Two other chunks are grass embankments, so that the whole picture is not too distant a cousin of Supersport park in Centurion. They will soon become covered tiered stands: a shame.
The Mahinda Rajapaska Stadium is but a nose job in the vast facelift of the region. But it is currently a most visual symbol of the potential of the district and the power of a president, and above all, proof of just how deep into the soil of the subcontinent cricket has gone.The town
In one of those common quirks of geography, both the district and its capital town answer to the name Hambantota. This is the deep south of Sri Lanka and almost entirely rural. The economy is essentially agriculture-based: paddy-milling, fruits and vegetables the big earners as well as a developed fishing culture. The King coconuts are magnificent and rightly popular.Miles pass without a sign of life. Half a million people in this district, which by the standards of the subcontinent is nothing. Even that, in the days spent here, feels an exaggeration but from somewhere, nearly 35,000 came to the first international game. Miles and hours pass without life and then you come across the almost-complete building of an international convention centre. The driver points out structures in the distance towards the coast: the new deep-sea port. An international airport will soon be up as well.
Regions and cities take generations to develop. They undergo a gradual transformation. Here, one day this will be a cluster of villages and small towns and the next a leading economic trading hub in South Asia. Currently we’re stuck in the time warp, which is a mildly disorienting place and time to be in. We haven’t been able to find a packet of crisps in two towns and yet a global sporting event is taking place here. In 2018 they might be hosting the Commonwealth Games. Nothing has felt less like a hub of anywhere, though that is not to fault it. There is an endearing, admirable straightforwardness about life – wake up, eat, work, eat, sleep. People smile and at the same time look on with mild suspicion.These big plans for Hambantota, says the head of the local chamber of commerce (sparkling website incidentally) Azmi Thassim, go back years. “The idea for the sea-port has been in place for years and the airport too, though that was for a neighbouring district. It has been accelerated and implemented since the president came to office, and that has been an advantage for us.” It is a familiar, if flawed, regional development tale.China is heavily involved, not only in the deep sea port but also with the stadium and airport. One foreign correspondent based in Colombo says up to 50,000 Chinese workers have been in the region for five years. More than ever these days, the Chinese have only to sneeze for the world to start deconstructing and analysing it as the next stop in their domination of the world. But given Hambantota’s geographical proximity to key Indian Ocean shipping routes, it was only ever a matter of time before someone came along and utilised it properly. Those who don’t believe in great strategic games say simply that an alternative economic base to Colombo is being developed and Hambantota, by dint of producing the president, is it right now.Chinese engineers and workers helped build the stadium•ESPNcricinfo LtdCricket development in the subcontinent
The link between politics and cricket in Sri Lanka, as Mike Marqusee observed in his cricket travelogue , is more explicit than elsewhere. Here senior politicians have been board heads and the sports minister’s say in team selection changes only by degree.Politicians build stadiums in their own names in their own districts. And stadiums and grounds in general remain the strongest currency of cricket development in the subcontinent. The idea is simple: build a stadium, in an underdeveloped region preferably, and soon players will emerge. If one player becomes a biggish name, then further, continuing development of that region is set. It has been one of the major steps in democratising cricket of the region, of spreading it and tapping talent in areas untouched. And it has worked, in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) chairman Somachandra De Silva says they have brought cricket to a village. “Because in the last two decades it was all Colombo. We also have plans to build an academy for youngsters of Hambantota and the adjoining areas, and also a indoor stadium. After the World Cup we will hold a Test at Hambantota when Australia tour in July this year, and also one or two one-day in that series. There are also plans to host World Twenty20 matches here.”There is inevitably cynicism about such ventures. According to estimates, the stadium in Hambantota has cost nearly US$ 9 million to build so naturally there is plenty of talk of corruption and kickbacks. The previous sports minister famously called SLC the third most corrupt institute in the country – after police and education apparently – and you’ll find enough locals who agree with that assessment. But just to see the stadium and to know the story of its construction wipes away some of the doubts, especially the concerns about its readiness before the tournament began.The driving force behind the idea was the president’s son, Namal Rajapaksa. The sweat came from the Chinese engineers (them again), the army (which seems to permeate through life here as it does in Pakistan), the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, which built the two main buildings, and the SLC, who funded it.
It stands now as a shining testament to Just Getting Things Done. A series of photographs of the various stages of its construction, taken by Lt Colonel Shanaka Ratnayake, the project coordinating officer, tell an extraordinary tale. Only by the end of 2008 was paperwork for the project completed – itself a gargantuan, bureaucratic task – and clearances obtained. At that stage, where now stands the stadium, was jungle. The actual work began on May 19, 2009, by which time land had been cleared.Growing grass for the playing area was the most difficult task; though you wouldn’t be able to tell, Hambantota is a dry, arid region. But with a fancy sprinkler system in place and help from the national curator, brown turned green towards the close of 2009. The ICC inspection team arrived for a first visit in February 2010, at which point there was only the playing field and nothing else.Only after that did construction of the buildings begin, but even by June, the grandstand was barely a structure. Pakistan A played a four-day game against Sri Lanka A in September, while construction was ongoing. Unusually heavy rains hampered work severely so that by December, just two months before the first match, nothing about the ground suggested it was remotely near completion.This time last year, the stadium’s grandstand was barely a structure•ESPNcricinfo LtdTwo photographs, on December 17, 2010 and January 24, 2011, when the ICC’s inspection teams were openly concerned, are particularly revealing of the acceleration of work. In the first is the grandstand as it might look in the process of a demolition. In the second, from a distance admittedly, it appears complete. The army’s manpower in those final days, says Ratnayake, was crucial. On February 20, just 21 months after construction began, the Mahinda Rajapaksa stadium was ready, a jewel from out of nothing.What will come of this jewel? Thassim is unsure, as are others, of the viability of the enterprise. The teams have stayed in hotels 70kms from the stadium. It is not yet an easy place for fans to access. Players have found the distances too great. Tellingly, neither Australia nor New Zealand from the group played matches here. “I was very happy and proud for such a stadium,” Thassim says. “But the viability of this, personally, I feel it could become a burden on resources.”The whole idea of Hambantota as an international commercial – and sporting – hub seems to be getting ahead of itself, of flying before it has started walking. It is audacious, but also flimsy, heavily dependent on political largesse and foreign investment.Businessmen and traders question whether the local private sector has the capacity to cope with the development. They insist that it must eventually become more involved in that growth. The local population has begun to benefit. Land prices have gone up, more local produce is being sold as more people visit. Big multinational firms, such as India’s auto giant Bajaj, are setting up plants here, boosting employment. But real, deeper benefits and change are still years away, maybe another 15 or so.They might produce an international cricketer before that though.

The silence which has followed the removal of Don Lockerbie as USACA’s chief executive does not bode well for the game in the USA

Martin Williamson29-Nov-2010It has been over a week since Don Lockerbie was ousted as chief executive of the USA Cricket Association and still there has been no official explanation of why he was dismissed and what the process will be to replace him. The board to a man has shut up shop and declined to offer any insight to what happened.What has emerged is that Lockerbie appears to have been dismissed ahead of the board meeting in Florida last weekend, so it has the hallmarks of a coup organised by Gladstone Dainty, the man who presided over USACA’s slide into the complete dysfunctionality which led to it being twice suspended by the ICC. He seems to have resumed control; the wall of silence certainly is a hallmark of the way he operates.Lockerbie appears to have paid the price for his ambitious plans for US cricket failing to materialise. Speaking to him in July 2009, three months after he took office, there was a feeling that he believed he could make things happen tempered with a suspicion he had bitten off far more than he could chew. Promises of an IPL-style tournament in the USA in 2010 and a fully professional national team by 2012 were not supported by a sound financial model.He came to the USA with the advantage of being well connected within the ICC but the disadvantage of having been in charge of stadiums at the 2007 World Cup. And while happy to talk at length to the media when things were going well, as soon as the going got tough he clammed up, too often failing to return calls or answer the tougher questions.The turning point was the triangular Twenty20 tournament he organised in Florida in May. The idea was sound but it had to feature India, Pakistan or West Indies to succeed. Instead, he brought in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, two sides with limited box office appeal and small numbers of local expats. Excuses given for cancelled games bordered on the daft, attendances were small, and almost everyone seems to have been left out of pocket. Nobody has been willing to discuss the finances of the event, but sources close to the tournament indicate USACA sustained huge losses.Since then spending has continued despite increasing questions of how it was all being financed. He appeared to spend a lot of time courting relationships on the subcontinent without any of them producing tangible returns. Eventually it appears Lockerbie ran out of support and possible USACA of cash.The burning question now is what direction USACA will take. Dainty has far too much baggage to take charge again in anything other than a caretaker role, although don’t expect that to stop him trying.Internationally, Lockerbie has wasted up a lot of goodwill. Until a credible replacement is in place, nobody is likely to want to get involved.The ICC, meanwhile, which bent over backwards to help US cricket under Lockerbie, seems to have been as wrongfooted by his removal as anyone, and is just as in the dark. It is unlikely it will want to keep backing any board led by Dainty and is likely to sit back and wait to see what happens.So for now, US cricket is back in limbo. The worrying thing is with a board unaccountable to anyone, even its own stakeholders, that situation could rumble on for years.